Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Soaring profits but weakness in pretty much everything else, that is how the Deloitte economics report sums up the Australian economy and that's what my community is feeling. Wages growth is stagnant while cost of living skyrockets. Living standards are flatlining while business profits soar. Deloitte, like others, spells it out pretty clearly; the economic woes are home grown. Their report underlines what Australian workers already know, what people in my community already know, and that is that they just can't get ahead no matter how hard they work.

This is what happens when an ad man with no plan is sitting in the decision-making chair. The boy who grew up in Bronte doesn't get that his economic mismanagement is hurting the hospitality worker from Hoppers Crossing. The economy isn't working in the interests of those who need it. The Prime Minister's 'have a go, get a go' slogan is just that, a slogan. It is not an economic plan. Whenever questioned on his mismanagement of the Australian economy, does he listen, does he hear, does he care? No. His response in the face of any criticism is to dial up the smugness, to dial up the arrogance, to bestow on the questioners in the people's House every day that self-satisfied smirk.